J.J. Redick: TD Garden loudest place to play

J.J. Redick: TD Garden loudest place to play

If you're wondering why the Celtics are 10-0 at home this postseason, the fact that TD Garden is capable of overwhelming opponents might have something to do with it.

Appearing on The Bill Simmons Podcast, 76ers guard J.J. Redick said that the energy of Celtics fans made the Garden a very challenging environment during the C's second-round meeting with Philly. He added that later start times -- an underappreciated aspect of a home advantage -- made it even harder.

"They're unruly. Every guy on our team afterwards was like, 'That's the loudest place that [we've] ever played,'" Redick said. "I was a little worried [about the] later games. They were like 8:30 [p.m.] starts. I was like, 'Oh man, this is three and a half hours of drinking, when these guys get off work and come to the game.' That worried me. They were going to be extra loud.

“My parents were at Game 5 and I went and saw them after the game before we got on the plane, and my mom was like, 'That’s the loudest arena I’ve ever been in,'" Redick recalled. "She’s been in some pretty incredible arenas, including Cameron Indoor Stadium for some pretty big-time Duke games, so for her to say that, it’s the truth. Their fans are nuts.”

Another fun Celtics-related anecdote? Redick, who spoke surprisingly highly of Marcus Smart, said his only particularly bad interaction with a Celtics player was with the ever-polished Jaylen Brown, whom he said called him a bitch and promptly apologized when the teams played on Jan. 11.

"When were in London, Jaylen was guarding me for that game and at one point in the second half -- I'm going to cuss on your show; I'm sorry -- but he called me a bitch and I looked at him and was like, ‘I don’t play that’ and he was like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m sorry.’ That was my only [bad] interaction. We played them 11 times this year and that was my only negative interaction with anyone on their team.”

James had a strong double-double of 26 points on 11-for-22 shooting to go with 10 rebounds and 5 assists. But he couldn't muster up enough in the fourth quarter to take over and dominate play, scoring just two points in the fourth while missing three of his four shot attempts.

"Yeah. I seen it," said Morris when asked if he saw James tiring as the game wore on. "We threw a lot of different bodies at him. He has to do a lot for that team. Everybody knows these games are coming pretty quick; games are coming fast."

Morris added, "At the end of the day . . . I'm tired. Everybody else is tired. You still gotta play. I would think he would get a little tired."

James, playing in his 15th NBA season, played all 82 regular-season games and led the NBA in minutes played (36.9) per game. Among teams still in the postseason, James is averaging a league-high 40.6 minutes per game in the playoffs.

Throw in the fact that he nearly always plays until mid-June -- he's been to the NBA Finals each of the last seven seasons -- and it stands to reason that at some point, fatigue would become a factor.

And the Celtics, to their credit, have not made it easy on him. We have seen James defend Boston's perimeter 1-2 punch of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, a pair of young, athletic wing players who have been aggressive going at James and his teammates.

After the three-day gap between Games 2 and 3, each of the remaining games in this series have been, and will be, played every other day -- something that probably benefits the younger Celtics more than James and the older Cavs.

But at this point in the season, while all acknowledge that having some level of fatigue is just a reality of where this series is now, no one's using it as an excuse. And certainly not James.